Review: Avid Pro Tools 9
Avid has unveiled the much-anticipated upgrade to its ‘industry standard’ DAW software and already the sigh of relief is palpable.
14 February 2011
Review: Michael Carpenter
You can always sense when Avid (ex Digidesign) is about to unveil something new. People start talking in hushed tones, saying things like: “this needs to be something special,” or “man, I hope the new software does blah, blah, blah…” ProTools releases always set tongues wagging in the audio community and the release of ProTools 9 has been no exception. Let’s face it, the program is the tallest poppy in the DAW field – cutting it down is almost a cultural prerequisite in Australia.
But why does the company that created the most popular audio software in the world have to protect its territory so carefully? Mainly because ‘native’ computer processing power has advanced so fast it’s become a virtual non-issue, and code writers are now cramming more and more facility into competing programs than ever before. In recent times, rival DAW manufacturers have tended to offer more for less in the eyes of end-users – with significantly less restrictions on track count etc – and even shareware multitracks are now being spoken about in glowing terms. The heat has definitely been on the newly re-badged ProTools manufacturer despite the last few major updates of ProTools LE being functionally impressive (improvements to performance and stability have been considerable).
But Avid has had a cunning plan up its sleeve – get end-users to vote on what they would most like changed about ProTools. For the last two years or so there’s been a live (and public) voting system on Avid’s website called the ‘Idea Scale’, and recently the top four ‘issues’ on this list were skimmed off the top by Avid, coded into software and rolled out in ProTools 9.
And not a moment too soon I reckon. Avid’s client base was becoming frustrated, particularly at the semi-pro level. Any way you looked at it, other programs were offering more for less and there was a feeling that ProTools LE users weren’t getting their voices heard and were just waiting for a reason to jump. Version 9, it must be said, needed to be a significant update.
And it is. I can’t remember a time when so many of my audio comrades have uniformly stated – after reading through the “What’s new in ProTools 9” document – that “this should shut people up for a while.” Though some of the functional updates are reasonably subtle, there are one or two major points that are real game changers in the landscape of this digital multitrack.
BIG DEAL
Starting off with the biggest deal of all – Avid has dispensed with the LE moniker and finally opened up ProTools so that everyone can play! For the longest time, using ProTools – LE or HD – was dependent on marrying the program to one of Digidesign’s hardware options. Whether it was something as portable as an Mbox Micro, or a full blown HD rig, the software wouldn’t run without first being plugged in to a Digidesign box, effectively making your hardware a dongle with benefits. Not any more. Avid’s ProTools 9 will now run with any soundcard, or even without a soundcard. Yep, that’s right. In terms of program authorisation, you only need to have your iLok connected with your newly transferred ProTools 9 license on it for the program to boot up. This certainly brings to life the dream of being able to edit yesterday’s drum tracks on your laptop while watching the cricket – something that I know has been a bit of a deal breaker for many engineers. Being bullied into only using Avid’s hardware has always left a sour taste in people’s mouths, and those of us who preferred an interface that didn’t marry to ProTools hardware simply went elsewhere. Now, with the release of ProTools 9, provided your computer can recognise your interface, ProTools will be able to use it to get audio in and out. Simple.
NEED TO KNOW
BIGGER DEAL?
As users of LE have been all too well aware, there has always been the ‘big’ version of ProTools – HD – which had a more sophisticated and ‘professional’ software architecture to support the level of investment in Digidesign’s hardware. In other words, if you spent enough money on its hardware, you were allowed to use the ‘grown ups’’ version of the software.
And then there was the LE version… for use with the portable, semi-pro, and almost totally pro interfaces. Back when this concept was introduced with the Digi 001, the biggest advantage of running the pro versions was that proprietary cards handled processing power, with the computer mostly acting as a body to house the DSP and software. On the LE version, however, all processing relied on the power of the computer itself. Back some 10 years or so when the 001 was introduced, that didn’t really give you much to play with, comparatively speaking. Consequently, the limited track count was also less of an issue – even if the program had offered more tracks your computer’s processor wouldn’t have been able to cope with them anyway. But over the last few years, native processing power has increased exponentially, so much so that recently the LE track count seemed limited only by Avid’s reluctance to offer more. ProTools LE software was falling way behind its competitors on almost every level and users on the worldwide forums were screaming for more ‘pro’ features in their software. Many were concerned about Avid’s ability to listen to its customer base.
ProTools 9 has changed all that. There’s now, in essence, one version of ProTools for all users and ‘extras’ versions for users of Avid’s hardware. It’s an important distinction to note – it’s now not so much about what you’re missing out on in the standard version as the little bonuses that you get on the HD version, which I’ll detail in a moment. This decision by Avid has caught many by surprise. The release of ProTools 9 has been a bold and confident move at a time when competition in the DAW stakes is fierce.
LIFTING THE LID
There are many aspects of this upgrade worth noting and I’ll try to get across as many of them as I can. The first one of these – from an LE point of view – is that Automatic Delay Compensation is now included as standard. What it means, in essence, is that ProTools users no longer have to be concerned with what RTAS plug-ins are being used on what audio channels. The system automatically calculates the latency being introduced by plug-in inserts and adjusts the playback of tracks to keep your audio phase aligned at the output. (Without this facility sounds comprised of multiple mics or channels became misaligned and out-of-phase.) So it’s certainly a big deal. The next big one is that multi-channel Beat Detective also now comes standard. For LE users this was only available previously if you’d purchased one of the extra Music Production Toolkits. All remaining LE users were restricted to single channel Beat Detective only, which was virtually useless for multitracked drums.
One of the other major gripes from the LE user base has been the aforementioned track limitation. Again, in comparison to almost all other DAW contenders in the market – most of which offer unlimited, or certainly very high, track counts – LE always had some heavy limitations. These were less significant in the Music Production Toolkits and full version, but in the standard version, many users found ProTools a bit underdone. While ProTools 9 doesn’t offer unlimited tracks, it now offers a far more generous 96 simultaneous tracks (stereo or mono) at 48k – there are 192 tracks in the HD version – 128 instrument tracks, 512 MIDI tracks, 256 internal buses, and 160 aux tracks. That’s more than enough to cover most artistic scenarios. And where LE users were previously limited to a maximum of 18 audio record tracks, ProTools 9 offers 32, and 64 for HD Native. Combined with the ability to plug in virtually any audio interface, all these changes add a whole lot of extra power to almost every level of ProTools.
ProTools LE software was falling way behind its competitors on almost every level and users on the worldwide forums were screaming for more ‘pro’ features in their software.
BENCHWARMERS INCLUDED
Another issue that’s been resolved has been the bugbear of my studio for quite some time – the ability to mix, or continue working on, sessions recorded on other DAWs. I could never see the value in investing in a program add-on like Digitranslator for the occasional project conversion. So I’m very pleased that OMF/AAF/MXF file interchange support is now built-in to ProTools 9. There’s also an Advanced Session Import option in all versions, which is pretty handy. And while we’re at it, v9 also sports an MP3 export option as standard, instead of it being another paid option. ‘Pan depth’ can also be customised on stereo output paths via the Session Setup window, allowing you to adjust the amount of signal attenuation when a track is routed to a stereo output and panned to centre. Very cool.
There’s also a whole bunch of other, more subtle changes – too many to go through in a review like this, so I’d encourage those interested to download the ‘What’s New in ProTools’ PDF from Avid’s website and, to get a comprehensive look at all the new features. If you’ve already updated to ProTools 9 and haven’t read it, I’d urge you to print it out and have a good look at it. I guarantee there will be facilities in the program you didn’t realise you already owned.
You may have noticed a common theme emerging here – the ProTools 9 release provides a lot of features that previously separated HD from the larger LE user base. Consequently, there are probably more than a few long-time HD users asking; “what’s in it for me?” Well, HD users do get a lot more tracks – audio, instrument and video (64 for HD against a solitary track for non HD users!). HD users also get a multi-speaker (up to 7.1) panner, for those heavily involved in surround work. It’s important to note also that there’s a new ‘middle ground’ – the Complete Production Toolkit 2 offers some (but not all) of these features, for the non-HD user. It’s not cheap though, coming in at over two grand.
TOOLS AT WORK
So, what does this all mean? Does it work? Is it any different?
Well, having used ProTools 9 for a while now, the answer is yes and no. Starting from the install, all went very smoothly. Almost all users on forums who’d dived in early were reporting a seamless upgrade, so I decided to take the highly dubious step of updating right in the middle of a project (after creating a system clone of course!). I initially downloaded the upgrade version of the program rather than the full version – the installation didn’t take too long but the casualty was the removal of all my Avid-related virtual instruments! A reinstall of the full program soon rectified that.
Working with the software, it doesn’t feel noticeably different. I didn’t really have any problems with v8 to be honest. I was already using the Music Production Toolkit, so I didn’t suffer the track count limitations so much, and I already had the multitrack Beat Detective. Now that I’ve got my head around the Automatic Delay Compensation, I’ve found this to be a huge bonus. You can insert plug-ins without any fear of how it might affect your playback. It’s made concepts like parallel compression a viable technique again – something I’ve sorely missed. If anything, I’d say my system seems to be running a bit more efficiently too. I’m running at a lower buffer setting, with ADC on constantly, and only rarely do I have to think about raising the buffer setting. I’ve only done one import of an OMF file, but that went seamlessly too. As I’ve not changed my Digidesign hardware, the interface situation hasn’t really affected me, but speaking to a few of my engineering friends, Avid’s new openness has markedly improved their perception of ProTools. I think I’ve been largely crash-free since upgrading, but a word of advice, make sure you upgrade your plug-ins to the most recent version as soon as possible.
One last comment I’d make: even though Avid seems to be refining the mix window to look and feel more like a console, I’m still a little surprised that a few ‘standard’ console features – like a hi-pass filter and a phase button – still haven’t made the grade. If, like me, you think this should be addressed, go to the ‘Idea Scale’ and vote it up the priority list. It’s arguably a little gripe, but one you’d assume would be relatively simple to implement, and frankly, people have been talking about it for as long as I’ve been using ProTools!
AVID USER
Avid has taken a huge leap in the right direction with ProTools 9. I’m not sure its done its long-time top end/HD users too many favours, but the company has certainly thrown down the gauntlet to other DAWs and rightly reclaimed the title as the ‘tallest poppy’ in the pro audio DAW stakes.
RESPONSES